“I hesitate to even bring this up…It’s all so yawningly formulaic,” Cooper said. “The truth is, if it actually got your goat, maybe it’s time to stop watching the VMAs. They’re not gonna change the schtick, trust me. Next year, if Miley Cyrus is still performing, she’s gonna get up there an undergo a live colonoscopy or something. Sure, it was tacky and it was tawdry and it was embarrassing, but 10.1 million people watched last night, and everyone’s talking about it today, so who’s getting the last laugh?”

“I missed the whole VMAs because I was watching Breaking Bad, then I was up the whole night trying to figure out the thing with the ricin,” Cooper said. “I’ve watched every episode of that series twice and I still don’t get what happened. I had to pop an Ambien just to get to sleep last night, I was so worked up about it.”

When I mentioned in yesterday’s recap/discussion that Jesse’s ricin cig freakout baffled me, a few commenters gave me sh*t about it. Now I don’t feel nearly as bad knowing that AC was similarly confused. Enjoy…

Meanwhile, I’m holding out out hope that Walt uses the ricin on Miley Cyrus.

Someone pointed this out in another thread, and I want to reiterate it here, the timeline of the series has to be in mind for everyone who is confused about how he made the connection so quickly. It’s been less than a year since the Brock situation happened, and it’s obviously been on Jesse’s mind for the entire time, plus it goes without saying Jesse has gotten extremely more intelligent as the show has gone on, even coming up with almost all the recent schemes (laptop magnet, train heist, etc) the fact that he wouldn’t be able to make that connection isn’t as far fetched as some have made it out to be… just my opinion

The whole show’s timeline so far has only really been about 14-16 months. Brock getting poisoned was only 4-5 months back.

I understand the initial confusion, but after Jesse freaking out about Walt “not playing him for just ten minutes”, I would think it would be more clear.

He realized that Walt had Heull steal the ricin cigarette, so Jesse would believe that Fring was behind it.

It happened again when Huell pocketed his weed. That’s when he knew that Walt had them steal the ricin cigarette and that Walt was behind Brock being poisoned.

It doesn’t matter that it was Lily of the Valley, the point was Jesse believing that it was the ricin, so Walt could get to Fring. Jesse realized in that moment that he’d been played again, and Brock almost died as a result.

Walt burned down Jesse’s world, now Jesse is going to try and burn down his.

Exactly, I understand when its been over a year for us the connection doesn’t come as quickly, and thats what makes the writing of this show so brilliant, the little things that were building up in Jesse’s mind helped him make that connection. I was thinking during last weeks episode with Hank and Jesse talking, the only way Jesse will roll over on Walt will be if he finds out about Brock. But It’s pretty clear that Jesse is going to go a little further with this, as he should, Walt is a fucking monster.

I’m sure it’s so obvious that it’s overlooked–or seems unnecessary to mention–but I really appreciated the detail of Jesse holding the cigarettes. That sells it for me. He isn’t simply leaping from pickpocketing directly to that-time-he-thought-he-was-pickpocketed-then-was-convinced-he-wasn’t, he’s also connecting pickpocketing and cigarettes, which helps both the character and the audience make the connection.

My only thing is that Brock WASN’T poisoned by ricin and Jesse knows that. So while Jesse knows that Walt had the cigarette lifted off him, could Walt still talk his way out of it by saying he had it lifted for something else and maintaining his innocence (even though he still poisoned Brock with the berry)

I got it straight away. He realised Huell had pickpocketed him and then stares at his cigarette packet for about 20 seconds. Not mocking those that didn’t get it though. You guys write the recaps and pick out loads of subtle shit that went over my head. I didn’t even realise Marie wore purple all the time until about season 2.

I get it and they set it up well but to me I just see the Lily of the Valley and Ricin things as being separate and if I was Jesse I wouldn’t connect that.

What Jesse connected because he’s smarter than me is that if Walt made up the thing about the ricin then he must’ve been lying about the whole thing with Gus poisoning Brock. Ergo, Walt poisoned Brock. To Jesse, there’s too much of a coincidence in how it all played out and so he correctly deduced what happened. Walt might’ve actually been able to talk him out of it again by throwing him off the scent with the Lily of the Valley but Jesse went to Saul first and Saul confirmed Jesse’s suspicion so now the cat’s out of the bag.

I think that’s why the scene where Jesse is largely suspicious of Walt suggesting he leave town (I’d argue Walt was actually sincere, there, as he’s always been protective of Jesse, but not really the point) is so important. He makes the connection (that lying about the Ricin has larger implications) precisely because he was so recently looking for connections.

The “ricin” issue doesn’t necessarily involve a “Brock” realization………it may be just that Jesse realizes he was “played” to assist in the killing of Fring…….especially after his “Salud” episode in Mexico….he may not hate Fring as much as Walt does…

…….maybe when he finds out about Brock he gets “really angry”…….and you won’t like him when he gets REALLY angry……

I am a little confused by your statement about the ricin issue and how it doesn’t necessarily involve a Brock realization. Are you saying that when he looked at the pack of cigarettes he did not immediately think of the ricin and how he was under the assumption for a while that the threat was not Fring but Heisenberg?

And yes, Jesse was “played” to kill Gus as well as Gale, Hector and Tyrus. This is what has been on Jesse’s mind for the better part of the last few months in Breaking Bad time. He knows so many deaths lead back not only to Heisenberg but also to Jesse himself.

What I meant was that Jesse “knew” (convinced by Walt) that the ricin had been administered to Brock by Gus Fring so Jesse agreed to kill Gus to help Walt and punish Gus for the Brock poisoning. After the crisis was resolved Jesse was informed by the APD and (maybe Brock’s mom?) that ricin had not been involved….that it was Lily Of The Valley.
Episodes later…..Walt came by to “help” look for the missing ricin and he and Jesse “find” it in the Roomba (it is fake of course).

HOWEVER…..Jesse realizes later that lifting the ricin cigarette is what convinced him to kill Gus (rather than Walt…..as he was about to do in the apartment) therefore Jesse realizes he was “played” into killing Gus and he had “almost” grown to “like” Gus and Mike after the “Salud” episode in Mexico.

So Jesse is pissed……but I suspect he may become “more” pissed if he ever finds out about the Lily Of The Valley.

It’s only been roughly a year that all of this has taken place, Jesse is actually really sharp, and Jesse has had doubts about Walt for a long time now.

Not to mention, he didn’t even get it exactly right! He wrongly assumed Walt poisoned Brock with the lifted ricin but that’s not even what happened. Saul confessed like an idiot and that’s really why Jesse knows roughly the truth now (though still not exactly the truth, but enough to rightfully be furious)

@dissident I think the idea is that Jesse knows the ricin was used to manipulate him into turning on Gus. The only other piece in that puzzle is Brock being poisoned. Walt lies about Gus using the ricin which means he himself must’ve poisoned Brock if he had it lifted off Jesse in the first place.

And one of the major themes of the episode/this season is Jesse finally realizing that Walt never stops “working” him. Realizing that his initial suspicions were right, that Huell lifted the cigarette pack, just causes everything to click into place. When Jesse confronted Walt in Season 4, he laid out the exact course of events, but Walt manipulated him into thinking it was Gus because Gus had used kids before. I’m sure we’ve all been there before where we suspect someone is lying to us and then one little thing happens that causes everything to fall into place.

@dissident. Yes on the rooftop Jesse tells Walt it wasn’t ricin it was from some plant that Brock got sick. Which that episode ends with Walt sitting next to the Lilly of the Valley plant.
Walt set it up so that Jesse would have thought Brock sneaked the ricin cig out of his pack and smoked it. Then got sick. This guilt would bring Jesse back to Walt.
I think the original plan was to have Jesse give the cig Fring but he never did. I remember Walt hid the ricin cig in Jesse’s roomba and that is where Jesse and Walt “found” it. I don’t recall when Saul lifted the ricin cig from Jesse.